I'm giving Cibos 5 stars for consistency. Â Every visit has been a good experience. The management and wait staff are friendly and attentive, the food is well prepared and the service is top notch. Â We recently had a very large group (25+) and the majority requested separate checks, this puts a strain on the wait staff and kitchen but they handled it without a hiccup. Â Highly recommended
Review Source:Took my wife out to dinner here and the atmosphere was nice. We had a free calamari dish for using yelp. Amazing calamari. Some of the best I've had. Our waiter was nice but he waited a long time to put in our order and almost an hour later he came up to us and told us he forgot what we ordered and never put in the order. So after an hour he finally had it in but we got our food shortly after that. I had some fancy spaghetti pasta but it was full of tomatoes, which the menu did not mention, it was pretty but dull tasting and I'm not a fan of tomatoes. My wife had the four cheese ravioli with spinach and artichokes. The artichokes were undercooked, there wasn't hardly any spinach, and the ravioli was dull. Our waiter didn't come by to fill our drinks, he waited to put our order in an hour after we got our bread and calamari and lost our order, and he didn't offer to put Parmesan on our food. But he offered to put Parmesan on the the groups food next to us. The waiter was really nice and the atmosphere was nice, but the service and food were bad. If you're going for the bar scene, I guess it'd be nice but otherwise I would stay away.
Review Source:We decided to end our pub crawl on Alvarado Street at Cibo's based on a pub waitresses recommendation for a good wine place. So off we went. Cibo's has a posh ambiance, but thankfully it is not a posh crowd. The staff were very down-to-earth and entertaining. Thanks David, you made our evening! Our fellow barflies were friendly and outgoing. The live band was fair to good, doing covers of flashback hits from the 80s. A good time was had by all.
Review Source:This place is absolutely disgusting...not to mention quite pricey. There is not one thing on the menu that is not incredibly greasy and about ready to give you a heart attack. I went here with my parents and my dad, who loves food and will eat basically anything, did not finish his meal. We decided to take the leftovers to be polite and then proceeded to throw them in the garbage on the way out, deeming them "not even good enough for the homeless." The service was also very sad. We went on a day when it was not particularly busy and as I looked around, I found many waiters just standing around and talking to one another...while my water glass was empty the whole time. Altogether, I wouldn't recommend this restaurant to anyone; unless of course you are looking for a heart attack then by all means...
Review Source:A great night out! Stumbled upon this place one night for dinner with my boyfriend and his family. We enjoyed our dishes and the place offers live music which was fun although a bit too loud.
Service was good as far as I'm concerned. It was a Friday night so it was pretty busy but our waiter was still aware and attentive of our table.
Would I go back? Hell yea! P.S.- They're Sambuca glass is huge!! Really get your money's worth on that after dinner drink:)
I was contacted by Mario, a manager at Cibo, after my not-so-stellar review. He wanted to apologize for our first impression and he asked me to give the restaurant a second chance.
I love it when owners and managers do outreach like this, so I was happy to try Cibo Ristorante again. I brought the same party as before - a double-date with our newly engaged friends to celebrate the next big step in their relationship - and our experience this time was phenomenal.
I wanted to try the calamari again. This time, it was tender and the dipping sauce was delicious. the breading was a bit plain but the sauce more than made up for it.
I ordered the swordfish special. My boyfriend ordered the risotto, and the other couple ordered the steak special and some kind of pasta dish.
Everyone enjoyed their meals. My friend said the steak was the most tender he's ever had. "It's like eating butter." My swordfish was unbelievable; the capers made a great touch and it was perfectly cooked. Hard to beat the quality and portions for a $25 special.
Our service this time was great, though we probably could've used more water. There was an awesome house band playing some mellow jazzy stuff. It created a nice atmosphere for us, especially since two of us at the table are musicians.
Thanks to Cibo for reaching out and inviting us to give them a second chance. I'm glad I did. We had a pretty good time.
Service was such a horrorshow (not in a good way) last night (and the food wasn't much better) that I can't in good conscience give them anything more than one star. I joined a couple friends at a table neat the bar shortly after 7:00, and within 5-10 minutes realized that no one was going to wait on me. The bartender was busy, but not so busy that he couldn't have stopped by & taken my order. So I went up to the bar & ordered a drink & asked for a menu. He told me he'd be out shortly to take my order. I got involved in conversation, and a good half an hour or 45 minutes later, he (the bartender) came out, but only to take the order of some attractive women at the next table who had come in long after I did. Finally, one of my companions flagged down a waiter who was standing around watching sports highlights on a nearby TV. He took my order. I was famished by then. No bread was brought out. When my ravioli & sauteed spinach finally arrived, I was quite happy. However, the ravioli (described as RAVIOLI A MODO MIO: Four Cheese Ravioli, Castroville Artichokes, Browned Butter, Sage, Cream, Walnuts, Parmiggiano) was bland as can be. There was no offer of fresh ground pepper or grated Parmesan, as one might expect at a decent Italian restaurant. There were hardly any of the aforementioned artichokes or walnuts (one or two chunks of each). One saving grace: the spinach was delicious. And my second drink (which also had to be ordered at the bar) was generous in proportion.
Finally, at 9:30, an additional waitress arrived. Someone who actually could give a rat's ass. The rest of the staff apparently couldn't be bothered.with serving us unless we grabbed them & put them in a headlock.
I havent been here in a while but I had purchased a groupon so I thought I would revisit the restaurant. The groupon was good for any pizza or pasta, 2 house salads and 2 cocktails. Our salads were very tasty with a spring mix, Polenta Croutons, Grana Padano cheese, Shaved Turnips and Balsamic Vinaigrette. I got the CRAB AND RADICCHIO RISOTTO which was very very good. Nice pieces of crab, Radicchio, Shallots, Green Onion, Mascarpone and Chili Flakes. It was delicious but very rich and filling. We also had the CAPELLINI DI GIOVANNI with  Angel Hair Pasta, Fresh Tomato, Sweet Basil, Garlic, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Imported Ricotta. It was also very tasty. The Chardonnay complimented the dinner nicely. Everyone who helped us were very friendly.
Review Source:My husband and I dined here last week and on the whole enjoyed the experience. The restaurant itself is very attractive and inviting. Â The menu is extensive and there is something for everyone. Â My husband really enjoyed his Salsiccia. Â My chicken dish was too spicy, but the staff took care of it very professionally. The wine list has some good moderately-priced choices. We also tried Cibo for happy hour and it was great. In addition, they feature live jazz--all too rare anymore. The service was a bit spotty--e.g., nobody at the front desk when we arrived and a waiter who was sometimes difficult to find, yet there were not many diners the night we went. The location is right in downtown Monterey - very convenient.
Review Source:It was a last minute decision to eat here. Â Our walk in party of 4 was seated promptly. Â The waiter clearly explained the specials and answered questions. Â Grilled baby octopus appetizer consisted of two medium sized (10 inch) tentacles. It was good, but not what I expected. Â Calamari was shared and spot on.
Entrees: pizza, very good; trio of gnocchi, very good; Bolognese and tagliatelle (special order on the pasta) very good; casalinga, good. Â Overall a nice meal for all. Â Not excellent but satisfyingly good after a long day of being tourists.
On balance, they are pretty good for downtown Alvarado. Â Sort of a classical Italian, not really that unique, but you won't go wrong either on the service or the food. Â A bit more trendy at night especially on the weekend. Â It's fun to eat at the bar and you will meet some interesting folks. Â Happy hour is really good with $3 drinks.
Review Source:Saturday night of a 3 -day weekend. Â Made reservations and our table was ready when we arrived.
Our waiter was very friendly, but the folks pouring water seemed to be pointedly ignoring us.  After several  minutes, our waiter came back to take our order and he finally poured us water. Â
Appetizer ordered, but after 10 minutes or so, there was no sign of it or anyone willing to refill our now empty water glasses.
Our waiter reappeared, apologized for the delay in the kitchen and offered us a free tiramisu by way of apology. Â We weren't in a rush and were happy to accept. Â He refilled our water glasses and left, returning a few minutes later with our appetizer.
The appetizer, Caprese Salad, was quite tasty. Â The tomatoes were very fresh and we enjoyed the puree of basil used instead of the traditional basil leaves.
Our main course arrived moments after we finished our appetizer. (with our waiter AGAIN had to fill our water glasses as nobody else would) Â I had the Ravioli a Modo Mio, and my husband had the Cibo pizza. Â My dinner was delicious, but he wasn't wild about the type of mushrooms used on the pizza. Â "They taste like dirt." according to him.
Still trying to get the attention of someone other than our waiter to fill our water glasses. Â Was it personal? Â We were nicely dressed in clean clothes, and had showered just a few hours before.
Fellow showed up to clear our dishes and he refilled our water glasses! Â He asked if we wanted dessert and we said our waiter had promised us a tiramisu. Â He then left and had to go find our waiter and bring him to the table. Â Yes, Waiter was still willing to comp us the tiramisu. Â
Tiramisu arrived and it was divine. Â
Maybe the water service is better on weeknights? Â The place was busy, but it wasn't packed. Â Our waiter was terrific, but I can't give high marks to the rest of the floor staff.
We made a reservation for 15 but only 9 could show up - which I understand can be frustrating for any server who is expecting to get a big tip, but that's no excuse for the mediocre service we received.
It was clear that the waiter knew he was going to get his 18% and didn't try to make the evening pleasurable for us. He was a grouch and that's all there is to it...sorry I couldn't order 9 alcoholic drinks, but someone has to be the DD for these ladies.
The food was delicious. I had the gnocchi 3 ways and I enjoyed all of them. The atmosphere is lovely. All the ladies in my party seemed to enjoy their meals but the servers attitude was definitely noted...
It was a Friday night with a large party of about 16 people. Â They had to split us into two tables which wasn't too much of a problem. Â As all of us started making our way into the restaurant, our waiter tried his best to get any beverage orders in.
I asked upfront if he would be willing to do split checks. Â He said he could but it may take longer. Â But he would be more than happy to take the various forms of payments from each party. Â (He did make a point of handing us our own check at the end which we definitely appreciated!)
We noticed with our Yelp check-in, you get a FREE order of Lemon Caper Dusted Calamari "Roasted Pepper & Tarragon Aioli, Fresh Lemon" ($12). Â And the sweet deal is that you get a free order per party of four! Â So our table got two orders! Sweet! Â (Unfortunately, the other table arrived later and they didn't have an yelpers sitting there, so I think they lost out.) Â The Little Guy, who is a picky 2 year old, was enjoying it! Â I thought it was fine, but he liked it!
We also got bread and cheesy bread crisps, the latter I particularly liked.
* Grilled California Baby Beets "Goat cheese and prosecco panna cotta, pickled pears, pistachio crunch, pomegranate molasses" ($9) - We almost overlooked this dish but overheard someone else order it. Â We are so glad we did! Â It was a generous order. Â The goat cheese panna cotta concoction is unlike any kind of goat cheese thus making it super creamy. Â The Little Guy wouldn't stop eating all my pomegranate seeds! Â All the components are necessary and complement each other wonderfully. Â I'd definitely order this again!
* Salsiccia Casalinga "House made Italian sausage, Peperonata alla Siciliana, Roasted Tomato Polenta" ($17) - Although it's not necessarily the prettiest of dishes to order, it's very meat heavy. Â It was tasty and even the Little Guy ate it! Â I really found the peppers in this dish to be a star, so full of flavor and cooked perfectly to bring out the sweetness.
* Gnocchi Trio "Spinach & Ricotta Filled in Bolognese, Truffle Filled in Butter Brown Sage, and Traditional Potato in Pesto Cream Shrimp" ($15) - With such a variety on this dish, there's bound to be one you like over the other. Â I was certain I was going to love the truffle one the best, but it was actually the traditional potato that was really good. Â There were a few of us that ordered this or at least tried it and we all concurred that one was our favorite of the three. Â A very good amount of the price paid!
The waiter, noticing that we had a toddler in tow, made a point of taking our order early and getting it fired up. Â We loved that he did this because that meant our food arrived just as some of the other diners were just putting theirs in. Â (Especially since we had late stragglers.) Â All the other food arrived at a good pace too. Â
Overall, I was pleased with our experience at Cibo. Â The food was good and service was efficient. Â They obviously are comfortable with handling large groups and families.
Side note: They have a happy hour! It's nightly from 4 to 7 pm in the bar only. Â
Menu:
Roasted Tomato Bruschetta $3
Lemon, Caper Dusted Calamari $6
Grilled Prawns, Salsa Verde, Black Garlic $6
Mini Pizza Del Giorno $7
Polenta Caprese $3
Sweet Potato Fries, Garlic Aioli $5
$3 Well drinks, Beer & House Wines
$7 All Specialty Cocktails
Okay,
If you check in then you get free calamari. Â I nice sized portion. Â In this place, you can tell people enjoy being there. Â Looks hoity toity at night, but very approachable folks on the inside. Â The owner was there the night I dined and it was great. Â I had the three kinds of gnocchi. Â The truffle was the best one in my opinion. Â So incredible tasty. Â The bartender, Dave, awesome mixologist. Â You will not be disappointed with your experience if you eat at the bar. Â Loved it.
I dont normally do this but my experience this past saturday was so bad I need to share and warn others. Â I have been to many Italian restaurants and know what Margarita Pizza should taste like. Â We ordered one along with their white bean soup. Â The soup came out cold and when I asked to have it reheated because it came out cold the manager had the audacity to tell me they had made it from scratch and it takes thats long. Â sure. Â I took a bite of the Margarita pizza and it tasted like cardboard. Â They would have been better off smearing ketchup on the dough instead of the sauce they used. Â The mozarella cheese was gooey and tasteless as well. Â I will never go there again.. The bartender had a bit of an attitude and the manager seemed to be used to complaints. Â His solution was to comp a few items on the bill. Â That was not my point. Â I hope they read these and made the necessary changes in management and in the kitchen.
Oh we then dared to order dessert and the tiramisu (if you want to call it that) was horrible! They need a new pastry chef along with new staff in the kitchen. Â Our waiter was wonderful and doing the best he could under the circumstances. Â There seemed to be a lot of running around, disorganization and chaos. Â Never again.
Being half Italian it should be noted I'm a pretty harsh critic of Italian food. Unfortunately for Cibo there were just too many missteps at our dinner to merit more stars.
I can understand forgetting something once and needing a reminder, but we had to ask our server twice for water glasses.
We enjoyed our calamari appetizer--yummy! It was super delicious! Fresh squid fried goodness. Also pleasantly to our surprise, it was free with our yelp check in.
The wait from when we ordered for our food to arrive was about 45 minutes. A tad bit too long. It looked like the kitchen was experiencing larger than usual volume because of the race the next day but they couldn't keep up with the orders. There were 4-5 servers just waiting for plates--the joys of having an open kitchen is you can always peek in.
When I did finally get my  Papparadelle Della Casa I was pretty disappointed. It seemed like it had been sitting under a heat lamp or the noodles hadn't been cooked long enough because they had a slight crunch to them. While the sausage was quite good, the consistency was a little strange.
My friends enjoyed the ravioli and the rigatoni. The cocktail my friend ordered was reported to be very, very good.
The decor in the restaurant could use a little updating. It just felt a little outdated.
All in all Cibo seems like a great place to come for drinks and some appetizers. I was underwhelmed with dinner given the price.
Passing through Monterey our hotel highly recommended Cibo's for Italian food and and a fun time with live music. Â As I told the front desk on my return, the recommendations was fantastic!
We arrived early Saturday evening and while the place was starting to get busy we were seated immediately. Â Our server promptly welcomed us and took our drink order leaving us to checkout the place from our table along the row of tables with booth booth type seating on one side and chairs on the other. Â We were three tables from where the band is set up so if we had chosen to stay later we were in a great spot for the entertainment.
Once we starting chitchatting with the server and the host we discovered one of the original owners was still alive and working in the restaurant. Â They pointed her out and after a few minutes we were blessed with meeting Momma Rosa!
Well, I am Itailian by ingestion so I knew enough to ask her to guide us through our evening of eating and rest assured, this was a GREAT call. Â Some highlights include the BEST Bolognese I have ever had!
My wife enjoyed the SALMONE GRIGLIATO
Grilled Wild Salmon, Brown Butter & Blood Orange Puree, Farro Risotto, Wild Mushrooms & Swiss Chard
While I enjoyed the SALSICCIA CASALINGA
House made Italian sausage, Peperonata alla Siciliana, Roasted Tomato Polenta
If I knew how to post pictures of our food and photo with Momma Rosa I would! Â I have an intense travel schedule and eat out often (and usually alone). Â Cibo's delivered a great all around experience for my wife & me and the personal attention to our happiness is well appreciated! Â
I am super glad my hotel recommended Cibo's and encourage you to experience their food and hospitality as well!
This place SUX! Â They only get the star because at least the band desesrves it even though they didn't play the songs I liked. The restaurant promotes jazz, but that night they sang a mix ranging mix of 80/90s songs. The place as a whole is a big NO-GO Â for their attempt for a dance bar.
Everyone squished into the long narrow bar area, even though the whole restaurant was empty since it was late. The bartenders and waitress aren't particularly friendly, in fact downright rude. If they were going to be so miseerable, they should just not work there. Sheesh! Â The crowd is mixed of old to young, skanky to lost/mislead tourists, beach wear to business attire. Â And there was some serious mixing....who wears a full suit with flip flops???? Â And some of the patrons there, I think were probably hookers and johns. Â Was NOT the place for me. Â It smelled like skunk in there. Â Maybe that's why there was a line-up of police when the place closed. Â Such a gross place...I fall into the terrible mislead crowd. Â I know better.
The well drinks are pricey and sub par. I think they used cheap liquor. I even think they put cheap vodka is the grey goose bottle.
Would never recommend this place as a fun night spot. The british pub up the road probably would have been better. Â Knowing where this restuarant ends up after a day, I woould never even attempt a meal there.
What an amazing gem in the heart of downtown Monterey! With its family owned atmosphere, and delicious, diverse menu, this makes for the perfect date spot. I absolutely love the pastas, fresh seafood, but am obsessed with the pizzas. The Cibo is the best (obviously)! Amazing, friendly, and talented bartenders (Dave from New Orleans can mix up a mean specialtly), and very nice and quick servers, this makes for a very pleasant dinner. You can't find stuff like this in San Diego!
***TIPS: Stay after 10 for live music and DANCING! Also, check-in on Yelp for a free side of calamari! Its delicious!
Cibo, Cibo, Cibo........
It was the site of my prom date, which really was not a prom date. I told my then bf that being from Alaska, I never had a prom dinner. He took me here in a limo, and I experienced a vodka sauce for the first time, as well as alfredo and spaghetti- he ordered all three when I couldn't decide.
I've been here many times with friends for a late dinner and live music. Face it, the place is fun, and not many places offer live music period, let alone some of the best bands with this quality level food.
Many, many nights I've partaken of their generous happy hour. And, as funny as it may seem, I like to "thank" businesses by occasionally ordering full-priced menu items. I have a family member who is a bar manager, and my step-dad is in trucking. Food is expensive and I guarantee you any place that has happy hr is losing money.
Cibo had been long overdue for their "thank-you" dinner from me. Since they keep their website regularly updated (a rare occurence, even tho it's not so hard to do), I knew they changed their whole menu, including their happy hour. This happened awhile back; the hh had previously featured half-priced appetizers and any of their pizzas. It now has a "mini pizza del giorno" for $7 and no longer includes my favorite clams and mussel dish. So I wasn't too excited about coming back. I knew I'd eventually try it out, but was thinkin' I'd be in for lesser portions and a bigger price tag.
Well, on the 4th of July, I had been thinkin' about where to go. I knew I wanted to try something new, but also wanted to go somewhere where I feel comfortable stickin' around awhile. I hadn't tried Cibo's new menu- which isn't so new anymore, so I found myself pulling up a seat in the lounge.
For the second time in a week, I'm noticing how wrong it is to have pre-conceived notions.
To start with I had the $3 tomato bruschetta. It is delicious. The bruschetta from the previous hh menu had more pieces, but was not nearly as tasty. It tastes like the tomatoes are marinated in a balsamic type of recipe, with hints of garlic and sprinkled with fresh herbs. Yes, it's only bruschetta, but other than Vesuvio, very few places have bruschetta with that wow factor. Their happy hr is updated on their site, so I won't go into all they have, but I'm lookin' forward to trying the grilled prawns with salsa verde and black garlic. I always thought the shrimp scampi hh dish was ok, and it came with toasted bread. It looks like their revamp replaces quantity with quality, which is fine by me.
I then vascillated on choosing a dinner item. I was surprised to see so many inventive appetizers, like bbq baby octopus, and lobster and beef carpaccio. And the dinner menu now features *gasp* natural, free-range meats and WILD SALMON! The server also said they serve locally-caught items, as well. Woohoo! Cibo, I've been a long-time off and on happy hour customer and ordered the occasional full-priced dinner, but with meat and fish that won't make me sick (anti-biotics and hormones are bad for you), I will be back to try more.
I finally chose the pasta special, which was seafood in a wine sauce. It wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be like clams in linguine with a few pieces of seafood thrown in. Helllloooo, it came chalk-full of clams and mussels, shrimp and crab meat. You literally could not see the pasta. Rather than a sauce, it came with only a small amount of a clear broth and was sprinkled with chopped tomatoes and herbs.
After my dinner ended, a jazz trio started playing, and I liked the music. Not too mellow or bubble-gummish but just right. Don't know who it is, but they're here every Wednesday. And I will be too, to try natural pork chops (from Niman Ranch, which has eased their restrictions, but is still better than commercial meat), and free range chicken.
I like coming on Sundays also, with Joe Lucido. That music is very, very mellow though.
I don't understand a lot of the negative reviews. I enjoyed my time and food here. I had 6:30 dinner reservations and was a little surprised by how empty the restaurant was. Either the bad Yelp reviews are keeping people away, or everyone was out looking at the Solar Eclipse.
My company and I were shown to our table right away. Our waiter approached us in a timely manner to take our drink orders. I asked if I could see their happy hour menu, and I was told that the happy hour menu is only in the bar. WTF! What is the difference? This was the only thing that I really did not like. I made 6:30 reservations so I could get happy hour prices on drinks! I ended up paying $10 for an Espresso Martini, which I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed! My girlfriend got a Chocolate Martini - we wanted something different from the norm.
The bread and oil that comes with an Italian dinner was very unexciting. Typical bread, oil and balsamic vinegar with nothing special. We received a free Lemon Caper Dusted Calamari appetizer when checking in on Yelp! My girlfriend joked that they offered this particular appetizer for free because it is the worst one they have. She ate her words after the first bite. The Calamari was yummy, cooked just right and not chewy at all! The tarragon aioli complimented the Calamari very well!
For my meal, I went with their Prix Fixe menu for $18.95. I had a good, but very boring mixed greens salad as my first course. My entree consisted of flavorful Grilled Wild Salmon on top of a nice creamy Polenta with vegetables(mushrooms, red peppers and spinach.) The salmon went very well with the creamy polenta and the vegetables were yummy too!
My girlfriend enjoyed her raviolis, but claimed there was nothing special about it. She felt like something was missing. Â
For dessert I got a somewhat limp piece of Tiramisu. It was good, but definitely nothing to rave about.
Overall Thoughts: A good Italian restaurant that doesn't set itself apart from others. Everything was good, nothing was special except for maybe the live jazz!
2nd time at Cibo? Even Better!!! The 1st time my boyfriend and I went to have dinner it was great and the 2nd time was excellent!
I even took pictures this time! (to be posted later)
Abbas made us a customized drink that was so yummy! I'm not quite sure what it was (and i"m told it's not on the menu) but it was based off of their razzmatazz and had a little chambord and their own juices that they make right there. I'm not a big drinker but I finished that drink (it was so yummy!) and sooner than later my fingers were tingling. lol.
For an appetizer I ordered one of my go to favorites at any restaurant- a Caprese salad. They gave it a little something extra by adding a wonderful pesto sauce. So good. My boyfriend normally hates Caprese salads but he tried it and asked for more! He ordered a special appetizer of the night.. I'm butchering the name here..I know i am...but it was called a ablascalloni???? Anyway it is scallops and abalone put together and a little magic happens and they create something wonderful! Â It allows you to have the great taste of abalone without putting a hole in your wallet.
For our entrees I had the al ceppo bolognese and my boyfriend tried the Pizza Gustosa which has sausage and lots of great cheeses on it.
Before we got there we swore we weren't going to have dessert. Last time we went we ordered two and its time to start watching our sugar intake...and yea right of course we got dessert!! Â We ordered the "Peanut Butter and Gelee Panna Cotta" and I had to add a side of their cinnamon gellato. This Peanut Butter and Gelee Panna Cotta is amazing! We took one bite and had to laugh because we were not expecting it to be THAT good. It has such an amazing creamy peanut butter flavor and tastes exactly like a peanut butter and jelly. Maybe even better. I did not expect it to be that packed with flavor.
Mario and Abbas were great as usual. It truly is a family restaurant. You know how they say, "When you Come to Olive Garden You're like Family" ?...Forget Olive Garden. Go To Cibo's.
Cibo has a wonderful atmosphere, the owner sat at our table and personally gave us his recommendations. The waiter was very helpful and patient with us as well!!
Appetizer: Calamari (not the same ol thing) the aioli sauce was delicious and the breading on the squid wasn't like anything I had ever tasted!!
Wine: Great selection
Dinner: pork rib pizza, YES pork rib to die for!!
Take your spouse or loved one for a nice intimate dinner or make it a "Girls Night" like we did!!
GO GO GO tonight!!
Top notch service, excellent atmosphere and tasty grub.
We shared:
Bruschetta - meh, ok
Cibo pizza - so good! anything with proscuitto and truffle is top on my list
Bucatini - cooked perfectly, SO flavorful, my favorite dish of the night
Pappardelle - fresh pasta, but the sauce was not my all time fav (but I'm not a huge fan of sausage in my pasta)
Pork Chop - it was really tasty, the potatoes were yummy!
Tiramisu - really really great! light, fluffy, delicious! I could've eaten the whole piece
I'll be back here!
This place is just okay. The menu is weak and the servers don't seem to really care about the business. If you come to listen to music and you are starving and the kitchen is closed, too bad for you. We arrived hungry not knowing they don't serve ANYTHING once the kitchen is closed. You can't even get bread out of those servers!
They really need to offer a bar menu to people who are there drinking and dancing. Every time I go there, the people get too drunk to the point of falling down, which really takes away from the pleasant experience people come there for. It's not relaxing to sit there and listen to music while people are stumbling around, trying to dance (but looking more like fools) while falling down on my table. I had my camera ready to capture these many falling moments! :D
And isn't it rude for people to put their drinks or coats and purses down on other people's chairs and tables, even more so when you are currently sitting at it? Sheesh, people need a lesson in manners.
Although I'm grateful that there is a venue for nightlife and live music, they really don't have a dance floor. It is a walkway and people dance on it. Which blocks the walk way so don't plan on walking through it. If they are going to offer a dancing spot, they should at least put a dance floor and extend it to the carpeted area just past where the band plays. That would be a simple way to offer a real dancing venue.
Came here just for drinks last night and had a great time. It was packed, but still enough room to sit and enjoy the live music. We had a lovely blonde cocktail waitress who was very attentive and friendly. They had a good selection of beers and cocktails and service was very fast considering the large crowd.
Bathrooms were clean, although a girl was throwing up in the sink...classy.
Never Ever Again-----Was in Monterey on business and this place came highly recommended-not sure why.
My boyfriend and I walked in and waited to be seated for appriximately five minutes, not an issue had the place been busy but there was only two other tables in there on a Tuesday night at 6pm. Â Once we were seated we seemed rush to decide on our drink order. Â
For an Italian restaraunt I was disappointed in the menu options and not tasty at all.
The entire time there the wait staff and bussers were just standing around shooting the shit or hovering at the bar. Â My date and I were dehyrdating by the time the waiter came by and checked to see if we would like a second drink.
Didn't like the fact that you can look into the kitchen and see everybody doing nothing if the staff was not at the bar chatting with the bartender they were in the kitchen eating.
For those visting Monterey try someplace else
Okay, I made a return visit. This time we had an early reservation made through Open Table (6PM). We arrived about 20 minutes early & were not on the reservation chart. When I mentioned Open Table they stopped insisting we hadn't made a reservation, but it doesn't seem that they synch their electronic reservations with their phone reservations.
The food was good, service this time and at the earlier hour was better. Our dishes were served on-time, our server was attentive if a little amped. Then we tried to get the bill. It took a good 7 minutes to get enough attention to get the bill. Though we immediately put our cards down, it was another 10 minutes of being ignored while he went to several other tables that were NOT trying to get his attention out of there (ie, those tables to whom he could still sell further rounds or food). My friend had time to call a cab, walk two blocks to the hotel to meet the cab, have the cab drive back to pick me up, and when she got there we had to have the cab wait while we stood at the table (since sitting/gesturing/following him with my eyes didn't work) to finally get the check settled. Should have just walked out.
So, ultimately the food is good (hence three stars), and if you have all night to sit around it's probably okay. In general they seem understaffed and hit the weeds pretty hard. I won't be back.
Since it was my first night ever in Monterey it made for an interesting evening finding the "hot spot" in town. Locals kept offering up suggestions, which we investigated and discovered meant there were enough employees working to have a decent time but very few patrons. After awhile we figured the Brit was our best bet. Thankfully, someone told us to walk down the street and stop when we heard music. Cibo is where it's at on a Friday night.
A rockin' band kept the beat going but it was a phenomenal waitress and stiff drinks that made the night.
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